Some thoughts on a few Oscar nominated flicks:

There are two movies that are nominated for Best Picture this year that I’m betting a vast majority of my innumerable reading audience have yet to see: “Winter’s Bone” and “The Kids Are All Right”.

These movies are polar opposites, like Tiger Woods and marriage (I know, the Tiger jokes are getting stale, sorry).

“The Kids Are All Right” is basically a story about Nic (Annette Bening) and Jules (Julianne Moore) as a lesbian couple raising two children, daughter Joni (Mia Wasikowska) and son, Laser (Josh Hutcherson). Joni turns eighteen and, with a little nudging from Laser, basically tracks down her biological father, Paul (Mark Ruffalo), and the kids and Paul eventually meet. Of course, Paul is introduced to Nic and Jules, and the move is about family relationships and how a rather formidable outside influence affects each member of the household.





This movie attempts, with all its might, to pass itself off as an “indie” flick, and it does a pretty good job cinematically speaking. But, the screenplay is pure Hollywood, and (this may sound a bit phony) I loved every second of it. The script is a perfect blend of drama, comedy, emotionally satisfying scenes complete with the “all is lost” moment, and one of the most important aspects a film desperately needs: a satisfying conclusion. It’s three acts of near perfection.

The characters are well-defined, and it’s a bit ironic that the kids seem to poses more maturity then their parents. Annette Bening has the neurotic, bitchy suburban housewife down pat. One can’t help but be reminded of her excellent performance in “American Beauty,” and Julianne Moore plays a slightly off-kilter, lost soul brilliantly. Make no mistake about it, all in this move don’t act like buffoonish “characters;” they actually act like real people. The conflict is so well-done it’s damn near palpable, and the acting is superb. Screen writers Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg did an excellent job with the material, and I strongly recommend this movie.

“Winter’s Bone” received universal praise from professional critics. There is one negative review on Rotten Tomatoes’ first page commenting that the movie was boring, and I couldn’t agree more.

The movie is about Ree (Jennifer Lawrence), a 17-year-old girl who lives in a rundown shack somewhere very, very deep in the Mississippi hills, and basically is responsible for her “mentally challenged” mother, little brother and sister. It seems her father cooked meth, got busted, and makes bail by placing all of his property up for collateral (all of this happening off screen).

The movie kicks off when Ree is informed that old pop better show for his court date, in one week, or the shack, and all surrounding property, will be confiscated. Okay, cool, the stakes are extremely high, and that’s a good thing. It draws the viewer into the story and hopefully keeps them there until the end.

Evidently, Ree’s kin live within relative proximity to her on the mountain, so she sets off to trudge through the bitterly harsh, cold mountainous terrain, from one “house” to another, to locate her father. And, for me, this is where things went awry.





Ree’s vain attempts to elicit help from her family go nowhere, as they have no intention of giving her any info on her father’s whereabouts. The main problem (again, for me) is that we are introduced to a cast of characters that are never clearly defined. I kept wondering who is this person, and how is she related to them? The only one we know for sure is her Uncle, Teardrop (John Hawkes), in a role that he was born to play. The rest of them I literally had to ponder how Ree is related to this person, and it brought me out of the movie experience. When a reader (audience) is wondering who the hell a person is, especially if they are supposed to be family, and we’re sitting there putting the pieces together like a puzzle, it conflicts with the audience’s attachment to the movie.

Also, the tension does consistently mount, but there are quite a few scenes that are repeat beats (same people, same places), that it just becomes a bit too tedious. Also, Ree’s trudging through the “desolate” mountains, but we really don’t get to feel her isolation, her pathos because BOOM, she’s at the next house as if they all live in a back ass gated community. I believe a few very short scenes of her against the elements would have elevated a sense of empathy for her, almost delivering a subplot of her against nature.

Of course, I felt sorry for Ree, but this is no coming of age flick. Ree’s a tough chick from the get go. I just couldn’t connect with this movie. I didn’t get that emotional tug that a dark, brooding movie like this should pull. Oh well, maybe that’s my cross to bear.

Neither of these movies will win best picture, but the writers of “The Kids Are All Right” should get some serious props for what they created. I only wish I could do the same. Oh well, keep on tryin’.